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Keira Knightley -&- A ‘China syndrome’
Keira Knightley
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A
‘China syndrome’
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Chinese:
‘To Buy Or Not To Buy…
…That is the question.’
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“In America, buying “Chinese” in the 21st Century is much more than choosing
‘One from Column “A”; One from Column “B”’.”
-Timothy Brown
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The Japanese have their tsunami. The Chinese have their economic title wave and; it crashes on the slowly eroding 21st Century United States consumer shores every day: 24/7, 365.
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Just try to buy. A product that is offered in so many brick and mortar as well as virtual stores that; is not an import from the Pacific Rim: more specifically from China.
Quick-purchase items seen on TV just couldn’t be offered with the ‘But, wait…’ come-on. Unless the too-good-to-be-true deals are anchored in the PRC. Moreover, staples like electronics and clothing are, today, ubiquitously originated in China, especially for American consumption.
With seeming inexhaustible manpower and low operating and labor costs it isn’t any wonder. That China will eclipse what is now the world’s greatest economy before the next American generation comes to pass.
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‘I owe, I owe…so off to work (I) go…’
America, once the breadbasket and the workforce for the world eventually priced its way out of competition; at least in global industry. As a land of plenty of virtually everything at the time of the American Revolution and, then for generations thereafter, the then young country was a growing threat to long-accepted English world commercial preeminence. The sun never set on the British Empire.
What with plentiful natural resources and endless cheap labor, the Colonies were once the greatest threat to British dominance in world commerce. America had it all.
Two centuries later. It is America that is falling from its position as the once-eager host to global industry, which still searches for reliable, cheap labor and reasonable-priced natural resources.
So, with the smugness of pride and a dangerous, obliviousness to gravity ‘before the fall’, America is now firmly held hostage. As it once treated so many captains of industry for so many years in the past, it being the land of plenty: America is now very much at risk. At risk of being the one vanquished. At the game of commerce that it dominated for generations…
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Chinese: America Keeps Coming Back for More
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(Aired only once in America. Now banned Chinese television commercial.)
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“Not like Chinese food, where you eat it and feel hungry an hour later.”
-Ray Liotta
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The great ‘Chinese Puzzle’ of the 21st Century is not a parlor game. In America, its citizens’ hunger for cheap, readily available consumer goods: is perfectly insatiable. Of late the American palate has been carefully developed through the ancient ingenuity of Chinese entrepreneurs. What with the earnest collaboration of enterprising American importers and promoters and retailers, the trap was set years ago. The prey? The: American consumer.
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‘That Was Then. This Is Now.’
With a captive market; the increasing costs for goods and; the decreasing quality of everyday products. There was room for complacency on the part of American organized industry and labor. Until the slow introduction of foreign-made goods of little or no greater quality at a more attractive price-point: American industry eventually began to lose what was a once, well-established, well-deserved, foothold upon the vast and powerful purchasing clout of the world’s most energetic consumer population; the United States.
A Mindset Is Born
For generations, the American consumer was mostly a satisfied lot. Without anything against, which to gauge product cost and quality the typical American consumer went from cradle-to-grave having been weaned and fledged on American goods. Americans expected to get what they paid for and: what they paid for…had better be good.
With the advent of ready credit, however two things happened. First, the prospect of ‘pay-later’ took the sting out of a cash-out-of-pocket purchase mentality. Payment-pain procrastination resulted.
With such luxury, the advent of small, relatively painless payments, over time, promoted a consumer mentality that encouraged commercial price-creep on the part of both American manufacturers as well as domestic purveyors. At the same time, quality control somehow seemed to suffer without so much, backlash.
Then. With more and more credit availability more and more product demand could be more and more easily met allowing commercial expansion. While, sticker-shock could be minimized via manageable monthly payment towards product purchase, the overall price of goods could increase almost imperceptibly but…continuously.
When, for instance, on a monthly basis incremental cost adjustment is slight. An adaptive consumer mindset is encouraged. Thus the appetite for greater and greater product consumption across the board for products large and small was whetted and satisfied. A vicious circle ensued.
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Cheap and Plentiful
Like, when the drug-pusher who sets his trap and then conveniently provides the “fix” forever: within a few generations in the 20th Century, the American consumer appetite eventually developed into something that became irrevocably dependant upon the ready supply of shiny, inexpensive, plentiful and often disposable goodies. All paid for in manageable credit-enabled bites.
The need was created. Then…
While America Slept:
The Old Pusher Was Pushed Out…
…For a New Pusher
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CHINA
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The Chinese Puzzle
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By buying Chinese, American consumers succeeded in alienating their own manufacturers. Yet, with the advent of price creep and lesser quality, American manufacturers, in a way, actually alienated its consumer base, too.
This Chinese puzzle seems insoluble. The American public is now irreversibly addicted to inexpensive Chinese fare. With the immense flow of American dollars that bathes the Chinese economy, the Chinese have the robust ability to buy United States debt.
Without the ready investment supply of Chinese Yuan with, which to fund a relatively hefty 6% of the American public debt, other sources would, necessarily need be tapped. In order to accommodate so much of the national luxury that is underwritten in Washington, D.C.
Incorrigible defense spending increases, pensions, retirement benefits, lifetime medical insurance coverages, padded expense accounts, extreme cost overruns, etc., etc., etc. All are somewhat dependant, to a point, on the ability and willingness of the Chinese to buy American debt.
If Only America Knew…
American support of Chinese international commerce helps America meet its national budget needs. If America decided to detach itself from Chinese goods, it could create a minor national investment crisis.
Americans would have to collectively band together and support domestic suppliers, which will be obliged to charge more for the products that China has provided in the past. Furthermore, the cash flow-back to China from American product sales would dampen the enthusiasm for Chinese purchase of American government debt.
Yet, to continue to buy Chinese at the expense of a chastened American domestic commercial base hungry for newborn domestic business would tend to continue energizing the newly powerful and constantly rising: Chinese millionaire and billionaire class. Some of whose peculiar habits in displaying their newfound, wealth are base and despicable…
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“It would seem today that the most efficient means of defining conspicuous wealth for the Chinese nuoveau riche is not so much possession of the exotic car or the bespoke tuxedo or atelier-furnished gown or fantastic bauble: it is the gross and perverted employment of $3000.00 per ounce ground-up and finely powdered essence of murdered… elephant.”
-Julius D. Thomas
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Posted 2 minutes ago by DILULIUS, King of Troy